Houston Baptist plans to add football program

HBU to add football with conference inviteHuskies need at least 2 years to get the sport up and running

JOSEPH DUARTE, Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Friday, June 10, 2011

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Houston Baptist University President Robert B. Sloan Jr., said a football team would bond the students to the university and would help increase enrollment.

Houston Baptist University President Robert B. Sloan Jr., said a football team would bond the students to the university and would help increase enrollment.

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle

Houston Baptist plans to add football program

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Houston Baptist has a message for would-be conference suitors: We’re ready to play football.

HBU plans to add football contingent upon an invitation to a “suitable conference,” school president Robert B. Sloan Jr. said Friday.

The HBU board of trustees, after conducting a financial feasibility study this year, gave its approval to add football pending alignment with a conference in Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).

“Our board’s approval is contingent, but we are ready to go when we get an invitation from a conference,” Sloan said.

Once HBU aligns with a conference, it would take a minimum of two years before the Huskies begin playing football.

HBU, with a student enrollment of 2,700 in southwest Houston, is a member of the Great West Conference.

Sloan said HBU has reached out to several conferences, among them the Southland Conference and Summit League, to express the school’s willingness to add football if invited to join the leagues.

“The idea is to get in a conference that we feel like has some regional connection, some natural rivalries that we can develop,” Sloan said.

The SLC would offer the best regional alignment for HBU, with neighboring football-playing members Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin and Lamar, along with four Louisiana schools and Central Arkansas.

The SLC will lose Texas State and Texas-San Antonio to the Western Athletic Conference in 2012.

Summit a possibility

But at the league’s spring meetings May 25, SLC presidents did not consider adding any new members — the league will stand at 10 after Texas State and UTSA depart following next season — in the near future.

“While interested in continuing to survey the national and regional landscape for future possibilities, the board did not consider membership expansion,” SLC commissioner Tom Burnett said in a statement. “The Southland has confirmed plans to be an organization of 10 member universities beginning next summer.

“President Sloan and other HBU officials have graciously shared their future athletics plan with us, including the possibility of football sponsorship, and we certainly wish them well in the university’s successful return to Division I.”

The Summit League does not play football, but four of its members compete in different conferences.

For a start-up program, Sloan said the two-year window would be needed to build a roster and hire a coaching staff.

He said the school has the available land on campus to accommodate practice fields, locker rooms and other training facilities.

Sloan said the building of an on-campus stadium is a future option, but the school will seek to lease a current stadium for home games.

Based on the financial feasibility study for playing in FCS, Sloan said HBU has determined it could break even after the third year of the program.

“We want to let people know we’re serious about being a football school,” Sloan said. “We’re not just going to say, ‘Maybe we’ll do football if you let us in the conference.’ If we get into a conference, we know that we are committed.”

HBU applied to rejoin the NCAA in 2007 after 17 years in the NAIA. The school recently submitted an annual report and strategic plan to the NCAA — the last step in gaining NCAA certification that will begin in the 2011-12 academic year.

The process is expected to be completed in August, with HBU gaining full Division I membership.

15 and counting

HBU has 15 varsity sports teams in its athletic program, which includes men’s and women’s basketball, golf, soccer, indoor

outdoor track and field and cross country; baseball, softball and volleyball.

The school has had success in the Great West Conference, with the women’s golf team winning back-to-back league titles and women’s soccer and softball claiming titles this past season.

“Having won three conference championships in 2010-2011, we are pleased with the role athletics is playing in our efforts to raise the recognition and reputation of HBU,” athletic director Steve Moniaci said.

“We know our students will be eager for the events and activities that the addition of football would bring to the campus, and we have also been encouraged by the enthusiasm for the sport expressed by our alumni and community friends.”

Sloan said the addition of football also would benefit the student body.

“It will bond our students more with the university, and it will draw our alumni back more,” Sloan said. “We think there’s a lot to it.”